• Error Checking and Embedded SQL

  June 8, 2005 Hey, Ted

  We are still new to the world of embedded SQL. We are still trying to determine how to check for success or failure of SQL commands. So far we have determined that we should use the SQL code and SQL state variables, both of which seem to serve the same purpose. Can you give us some direction?

  –Pat

  

  Good question, Pat. I have seen programs that had no error checking for the SQL commands. When something goes wrong, they just keep on truckin’! Then people wonder why the database is messed up.

  Here’s the method I use. It has worked

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• Query/400 Does Exponentiation, Sort Of

  June 8, 2005 Ted Holt and Bob Ellsworth

  Dear Colleagues:

  Query/400, the software IBM never got around to completing, does not have an exponentiation operator, but that did not stop Bob Ellsworth from making Query carry out exponentiation. If you’ve seen Bob’s tips before, you may remember that Bob is the guy who makes Query do what it was never designed to do. Here’s the technique Bob shared with me to answer a question from a reader.

  –Ted

  

  I am new to IBM and Query/400 and have a problem with a result field. I am working with two pieces of data:

  1. Cost with no decimals (e.g., 300)

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• Admin Alert: A Better Technique for Detecting Invalid Log-In Attempts

  June 8, 2005 Joe Hertvik

  Recently, I wrote an article explaining how to monitor the OS/400 history log, QHST, for invalid log-in attempts. No sooner had that issue of Four Hundred Guru hit the Web than I received a reader email that contained an excellent suggestion for finding even more invalid log-in attempts than I had found with my technique. Here’s the scoop.

  

  Reader Shalom Carmel wrote in to note that my original solution was too focused on finding invalid log-in attempts from 5250 green-screen terminals, to the detriment of locating invalid log-in attempts originating from other applications and OS/400 servers. He wrote:

  In your

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• Creating Pivot Tables on the iSeries

  May 25, 2005 Bruce Guetzkow

  The code for this article is available for download.

  If you’ve ever used spreadsheet software, there’s a good chance that you’ve created a pivot table. Pivot tables allow you to convert rows of data into columns of data, which may be more meaningful to the end user. Creating pivot tables on the iSeries can be a complicated process. The commands demonstrated here will greatly simplify that task.

  

  A Pivot Table Scenario

  Before we get to the commands, let’s first describe a situation where a pivot table comes in handy. Suppose that you have a Sales History file with the

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• File Members and the Library List

  May 25, 2005 Dominic Lefevre

  What happens when an RPG or COBOL program opens a file? For one thing, the system has to find the file. And where does it look for the file? Everyone knows the answer to that question. The system searches the libraries in the library list, beginning with the system library list, proceeding through the product libraries, the current library, and finally the user libraries. The system selects the first file it finds of the desired name, right? Not necessarily.

  

  The exception comes when the system is searching for a certain file member. If the system does not find the desired

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• Admin Alert: Configuring Windows Desktops to Use SSO

  May 25, 2005 Joe Hertvik

  In recent issues, Admin Alert has been covering how to configure and use IBM’s Single Sign-On technology (SSO), which allows Windows domain users to automatically authenticate and authorize themselves to use i5/OS applications without entering an OS/400 user profile and password. While prior columns have covered server configurations, this final article completes the process by discussing how to configure your Windows desktop machines to use SSO.

  

  If your network is not already configured for SSO, be sure to read these previous three articles in the series, which cover Windows and i5/iSeries server configurations for SSO:

  • Requirements and pre-configuration tasks for

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• Prevent Access to System Request Menu

  May 18, 2005 Shannon O'Donnell

  The code for this article is available for download.

  I was looking over the back issues of Four Hundred Guru recently and came across a tip by Ted Holt on preventing access to the System Request Menu. In that tip, a reader asked how to prevent his users from gaining access to the System Request Menu and inadvertently logging off the system before his cleanup code executed. Ted’s response was to monitor for the system message ID CPF1907, which is fired when the user attempts to bring up the System Request Menu. I have another solution that might appeal

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• Use SQL to Send Database Files via FTP

  May 18, 2005 Hey, David

  I am looking for a way to send a native iSeries database file to a Unix system. The file needs to be sent in tab-delimited format. The end of line delimiter is variable (potentially different for each target system, which I already have defined in a file.) I need to take the output file and FTP it back to the Unix server. By default, when I FTP a (flat) file from the iSeries to a Unix box in ASCII mode, FTP adds CR/LF to the end of the record. I can use Copy To Import File (CPYTOIMPF) to create a

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• Admin Alert: Configuring an i5/OS-based EIM Table for Single Sign-On

  May 18, 2005 Joe Hertvik

  In previous columns, I introduced several concepts and configurations for enabling IBM‘s Single Sign-On (SSO) technology, in which Windows domain users access a Kerberos server to automatically authenticate and authorize themselves to use i5/OS applications without entering an OS/400 user profile and password. While previous articles focused on network configuration, this week I’ll look at how you create and use an Enterprise Identity Mapping (EIM) domain to tell Kerberos which i5/OS user profiles to use to automatically sign a user on to an i5 or iSeries partition.

  

  Please note that this article is the next installment of a group

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• Use Field Names for Column Headings

  May 11, 2005 Ted Holt

  SQL/400 SELECT statements use the column headings that are stored as part of the file description when displaying or printing data. Sometimes I prefer to see the field names themselves used as column headings. I have found one method to make SQL use field names as column headings, but I wonder if you know of a better one.

  –Danny

  

  Danny is referring to files that are created with DDS, although column headings may also be defined with SQL’s LABEL ON command. Here’s an example of a few fields with defined column headings.

  A                                      UNIQUE
  A          R CUSTREC
  A            COMPANY        3P 

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